My website is currently done in manually coded HTML. (Don't laugh!) (Hey, I asked you not to laugh!) I'd like to redo the home page and one or two other parts of it with WordPress, but I don't want to spend the time redoing the entire site. Is it possible to have links on the WordPress pages that point to old-style pages, and vice versa? I think so, but I want to make sure before I ask Sonic to install WordPress and it takes over my entire website.
Hi Patty,
You can mix regular HTML files for your site with a WordPress site. The WordPress menu editor will let you add custom links to your HTML files. The only trouble you might run into is if you want to use the same WordPress layout (header, content, footer) for the HTML pages. In that case, if you change the menu or WordPress appearance, you'll have to hand edit the HTML files.
Depending on how many pages you have, it might be easier/better in the long run to re-create your old HTML pages in WordPress and redirect each .html file to their new WordPress page (so old search engine links and SEO rankings will carry over to the new pages).
But in any case, it's perfectly okay to have .html files mixed in with your WP install.
Another option is to install WordPress to a subdirectory (e.g. /cms) so that WP is on it's own and not mixed up with lots of files in your root directory, but this is strictly for better organization and assuming you don't mind installing WP to a subdirectory.
Hope that helps!